Square Enix's DKS3713 event from August 2008 delivered the first real time footage of Final Fantasy XIII. The Fabula conference appears to be more press oriented than that event.

Square Enix's behind-curtain trailer reel at the Tokyo Game Show made mention of a "Fabula Nova Crystallis conference" of some form to take place on January 11, 2011. In this week's Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura shared a few details.

The conference is currently planned for January 11, Nomura confirmed. It will serve as an announcement press conference both for the Fabula Nova Crystallis series (Agito, Versus) and unrelated games as well.

A full Versus reveal in just three months.

If you've been wondering why Square Enix has been so quiet about Final Fantasy Versus XIII until now, this is the reason. Nomura says the Versus team has been working towards a proper unveiling at the Fabula conference, which is why they were unable to share information at E3 and even kept mostly quiet at TGS.

"We will show proper screens for both Versus and Agito," said Nomura.

By "proper," Nomura could be referring to how the brief Versus footage at TGS was edited to remove any menus or screen prompts. In past interviews and Twitter updates, he said that this was done to keep people from figuring out too much about the game. Perhaps those elements will remain in the images shared at the Fabula Conference.

[UPDATE 17:12 -- The terms "screen" and "images" may be misleading here. Nomura doesn't seem to be referring to "screenshots," but the actual game screen itself. I'm pretty certain Square Enix won't be showing a bunch of still screenshots at the event.]

Different from 2008's DKS3713 fan event, which marked the debut of in-game Final Fantasy XIII footage, Nomura tells Famitsu the Fabula Conference is meant for press. However, he added that Square Enix is looking into letting the public in.

Famitsu pressed Nomura about his statement that games outside of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series will be at the Conference. "There are Dissidia characters we will announce at the Conference, and we also have a number of other surprises."

Corrections

9/22: A previous version of this story erroneously stated that Nomura had said the conference had the nickname "Fabula."